The Next Rocky Balboa
by IndianaParkWars
Summary: This is NOT my story. This is my best friend, Mike's. He allowed me to put it on the website. He originally wrote it, I edited it. Neither of us own Rocky. This is the first chapter, there will be more. Rating: This is rated K plus for: Brief fighting.


The Next Rocky Balboa

Written by Michael Manth

Edited by Kyle Licht

Ex-ex champ Rocky Balboa is now in his late 60's It has been 5 years since he got back in the ring and fought Mason "The Line" Dixon, the former heavy weight. He is clearly too old to fight now and his boxing career is over. His restaurant, named after his deceased wife, Adrian, is now closed. Heartbroken, Rocky leaves his hometown of Philadelphia and moves to Sanborn, New York. Rocky leaves his fame and boxing skills behind him keeping it a secret to avoid publicity. To him, the "Italian Stallion" is dead. Back in his hometown, his son Rocky Jr. and his brother in law, Paulie, convince the town to put up a statue in a tribute to Rocky on the steps that he climbed during his training. Paulie had the mayor engrave "Eye of the tiger" in the statue.

Back in Sanborn, Rocky lived near the college, Niagara University. It's been a year or two since Rocky gave up boxing completely. In the college, 20-year-old Chris studied physical education to become a gym teacher. Unfortunately, Chris had to know every sport inside and out. He knew most of them already, so it wasn't a problem. That same month, he discovered that his teacher planned boxing for them.

In Rocky's new home, he was in the basement looking through his boxes of old things. There were three boxes all labeled 'MEMORIES'. Opening them up, he realized that it was all of his old boxing things. There were newspaper articles, trophies, awards, and a picture of his statue. He opens up the second one and discovers special items. Such as, his title, Apollo Creed's boxing shorts, a picture of Adrian, etc. Something gold caught his eyes. He reaches in the box and pulls out golden boxing glove-cufflinks. His old trainer, Mickey, gave them to him. Under those were a pair of boxing gloves. Rocky tries them on, "They still fit." He says with bliss.

All of the sudden, he was in a flashback punching Apollo Creed, Clubber, Ivan Drago, Tommy and Mason. Behind him was Mickey shouting for him all those years. "Get up 'cause Mickey loves you!" Rocky sits down and starts to cry. When he starts to feel better, he takes the medal and puts it around his neck. "Good to have you back Mick!" He says.

Back at college, Chris Clubber and his class of 30 were learning boxing. He was up first against his foe, Kevin. Kevin was always beating Chris at everything, whether it was soccer, hockey, baseball, or football. Kevin was the top of the class beating Chris at everything. The coach blows his whistle and steps before all of the boys. "Ok girls! We are going to make this more fun. We are going to have a tournament, when we fight today; you will be ranked for the tournament." The bell rings. "Alright go take your lunch break. Chris walks outside the class and sees Kevin across the hall. Chris holds his fist up and runs at Kevin. Kevin jumps back and Chris falls on the ground. He stands up and prepares to throw another punch, but Kevin pops him in the nose. Chris grabs his nose and Kevin keeps hitting him in the face. He is in so much pain, that Chris can't even put his hands up. One punch, and it's lights out for him. Chris lay on the marble floor with blood dripping from his nose to the floor. Chris opens his eyes to see the nurse getting something. Chris has a pounding headache like you would never believe. His eyes are blurry as a figure steps closer to him. "You better learn boxing pretty quick because right now you have a zero and you're last in the tournament. Get a trainer or something, just shape up." It was the coach, no one else sounds as threatening as him.

Chris shakes the blurry out of his eyes and sees Coach walking away. He then gets up and leaves the college without his car. Back at Rocky's, Rocky brought his old boxing gloves outside and starts punching a punching bag rapidly. Flashbacks start up again, he sees Apollo, Clubber, Drago all getting hit. Then, he thinks he is back in the ring with Mason Dixon getting punched. Mason punches Rocky waking him from his flashback.

Chris walks along the neighborhood, passing Rocky's house. He saw Rocky punching in the backyard and runs up to his back gate. He watches Rocky going away at the bags, "Hey, you punch great!"

Surprised, Rocky turns around and brusquely says, "What are you doing here?"

Chris leans up against the fence, "I heard you boxing and came over to see you. You're really good," he benignly says. "My name's Chris. You know, I'm not so great at boxing. As you can see, this black eye says enough." Chris comically states. Rocky looks at him without even a grin. "There's this kid that beat me up named Kevin." Rocky still stares at Chris waiting for the actual question to come out. "So, I was wondering if you could be my trainer." Chris hesitantly asks trying to put the words together correctly.

Once Chris said that, Rocky started remembering when he asked Mickey to be his trainer, training with Rocky, and working hard to earn the medal. Finally, Mickey's grave came up. Rocky wanted to pass on Mickey's teaching; almost liked he owed Mickey for all of this. He looks at Chris and nods his head, "Fine, I'll train you. We'll start right away."

"Alright! Let's do this!" Chris screams jubilantly.

"Start off by running 5 miles, go home and rest. You don't want to overwork yourself. You have a hard day tomorrow. Then, meet me in the backyard at 6:30 a.m."

"What? That early?" He exclaims. But then he thinks about his school boxing. "Fine."

Chris begins to leave, "Wait!" Chris stops. "I got breakfast covered. And by the way, my name is Rocky." Chris waves goodbye starting to run his 5 miles.

The next morning, Chris stops by Rocky's house. "Man, I'm starving, what's for breakfast?" Chris asks Rocky walking in his backyard.

Rocky hands Chris a cup filled with three raw eggs "Drink up." He says.

Chris looks at it and takes a sip spitting it out immediately, "Yuck! What is this?"

"Raw eggs, good protein." Rocky replies.

"You expect me to drink this stuff?" Chris asks.

"Yes, I do. If you want to learn boxing, then start here."

Chris looks at it again, plugs his nose and gulps it down. After swallowing it, he shakes a bit. "I can't believe I drank that."

Rocky starts training Chris hard, like he did with Mickey. Rocky had him hitting a punching bag, running 5 miles every day and things like that. Chris starts to get bored of all of the training exercises. As he hits the punching bag, Chris slows down in boredom and stops. "Can't I do something else? I'm ready." Chris says.

"No, you're not doing right." Then, another flashback and Rocky was at Mickey's old gym practicing punching the punching bag. Mickey started screaming at Rocky, "Flip the jab! FLIP THE JAB!" Rocky comes out of it and looks at Chris. "You need to flip the jab."

After practice, Rocky and Chris were talking. Chris says. "You know, my father loved this old boxer name the "Italian Stallion". He said this guy won the title twice and just a few years ago, he got back in the ring in his early 60's and fought the champion." Chris tells Rocky as if he wasn't the Italian Stallion.

Rocky looks at Chris disregarding his former boxing title, "Yeah, I heard of the guy, he's a great fighter." Rocky doesn't want Chris to know about who Rocky really is. "So when are you fighting Kevin?"

"In only two more days!" Chris says.

Rocky looks at Chris confidently, "I think you're ready." He says positively.

"Yes!" Chris screams with joy. "Can you watch my fight?" He asks.

"Sure, why not." Rocky says.

Rocky was in his basement again looking through his boxing things. His grabbed his title and out of nowhere came another flashback. He was back with his rematch with Apollo. They're both on the floor and the ref is counting _7,8,9. _Rocky gets up and wins the fight leaving Apollo on the ground and winning the title. At the top of his lungs, he yells, "Yo Adrian! I did it!" Rocky grins looking at his title followed by the phone ringing. It was his son, Rocky Jr.. He sounds kind of sad and upset, "Hey dad, Uncle Paulie just died." Rocky stops thinking for a moment and realizes how tragic his death was.

Next day, Chris goes Rocky's house and sees a note on the front door. It says

_Dear Chris, _

_There was a family death, I went back to Philadelphia. I hope you win the fight. _

_From Rocky._

At Rocky's hometown, he attends the funeral of Paulie. Rocky was asked to give his eulogy on Paulie. Rocky looks at the coffin and thinks. "You know guys, Paulie was stubborn, hotheaded, angry and drunk all of the time. But he was my best friend. I was stuck with him all of these years. Rest in peace my friend."

Back in Sanborn, Chris goes on Youtube and looks up the Italian Stallion. There was a video of Rocky fighting. He couldn't believe his eyes as he watched the fight. It was Rocky! It was Rocky vs. Mason. Chris thinks to himself, _It was Rocky all along. Rocky won the title and fought all of these fights dad talked about. He also lost his wife according to dad. Maybe that's why he is home. _

Chris looks out his window and says, "Oh wherever you are Rocky, good luck."

In Philadelphia, Rocky decides to visit his old stomping grounds. First, he walks up to an old pet shop. That's where he met his wife, Adrian. He is in another flashback, talking to Adrian and making corny jokes. He snaps out of it and starts crying. Rocky pulls himself back together and notices Mickey's old gym. "How you doing Mick?" The Mighty Mic sign was so faded, you could hardly read the writing. Someone called for him, "Dad?" It was Rocky Jr..

Rocky looks at him, "Nice to see you son."

"Dad, I just want to tell you that Paulie won the lottery before he died and bought a lot of beer and cigarettes. He also used the money to put your statue back up." Jr. says.

"What?" Rocky says as they walk to the steps where he used to run. He sees a shiny version of himself. Rocky looks at the statue and comically says, "You look handsome."

All of the sudden, he starts running up the steps, charging holding nothing back. He gets to the top and starts crying again. He looks up into the sky and screams, "Why am I still here? I LOST SO MUCH!" The flashbacks occur again, but this time, they are terrible. She sees Mickey dying, right in front of Apollo falling to his death, and Adrian's grave. _Adrian__**. **_He thought. Rocky sees their wedding and Rocky's son being born. The sky is getting darker and the sun is setting. Rocky looks up and falls to the ground instantly.

In Sanborn, Chris is ready to fight Kevin. They stand in the gym and Chris says, "This is for Rocky." Chris gets in the ring and hers the bell. Kevin pounces at Chris trying to punch him in the nose, but Chris remembers Rocky told him _Twinkle Toes._ Chris hops out of the way dodging Kevin's punch. Suddenly, Chris throws a punch hitting Kevin straight in the nose. He starts bleeding, "Why you little!" Kevin says angrily.

Kevin punches Chris in the gut knocking him on the ground. "1, 2, 3." The ref says. Chris stands up and starts punching Kevin randomly. Kevin blocks most of the punches but Chris doesn't stop punching. Chris starts remembering, "Flip the jab, flip the jab!" After a while, Kevin wasn't able to defend himself anymore giving Chris the advantage. Chris goes to the core and punches Kevin three times. The ref starts counting. "1,2,3,4,5." Kevin isn't appearing to get up. "6,7,8,9,10! You're out!"

Chris yells, "That's what you get for messing with me!"

Chris's teacher walks up to him, "Wow! How'd you get so good?"

Chris looks at him smiling, "Rocky Balboa taught me." They both smile and Chris starts to yell proudly.


End file.
